Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Identity Theft Protection Site Launched

7. September 2004 • Brian Kerr
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A new U-M web site with the pithy title of Protecting Yourself Against Identity Misrepresentation and Theft at the University of Michigan has just been launched, and is being heavily promoted in the campus house organs. The site appears to be the product of extensive bureaucratic focus-grouping, eschewing useful notices and facts for smiling photos and disorganized, massive link collections.

While the site displays a bulging list of administrative and departmental sponsors—“IT User Advocate, Information Technology Central Services, Housing, Department of Public Safety, Office of Student Conflict Resolution, VP for Communications, International Center, the School of Information, and others,” including a team of graduate students from the Schools of Information and Public Policy—it’s remarkably devoid of any specifically helpful advice about identifying or responding to threats of identity theft.

As always, take abuses of campus computing resources to the User Advocate’s office and report serious stuff to DPS.